Thoughts on Japanese Film and Media

Roger Ebert’s Japanese Film Reviews

Roger Ebert is possibly the world’s best-known film critic and has been at it for years, contributing reliable reviews and critical analysis that many English-speaking film-goers turn to when in doubt about what to spend their money on. He has a massive collection of reviews on his website, over 6,400 according to movie review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert’s collection of reviews includes a large amount of foreign films, many of which are Japanese. He lists Ozu Yasujiro as one of his favorite directors, so his films are well-represented, but he seems to also have a penchant for Koreeda Hirokazu, Miyazaki Hayao, Kurosawa Akira, and other Japanese greats such as Mizoguchi and Imamura.

This was a difficult list to put together. The idea came to me as I was sitting at work, wondering if Ebert’s review database was sortable or searchable in some way. I arrived at home to find that it is tough to pinpoint his reviews of Japanese films, though searching the website can net a few. So, I poured over countless reviews to find the Japanese films represented in this list. It’s probably not a perfect representation–I’m sure I missed some–but there is a wealth of great films along with Roger Ebert’s expert opinions and analysis here. Although I don’t agree with him on everything, he is mostly spot-on. Ebert has seen a great amount of Japanese masterpieces and you’ll notice that out of the 61 films on this list, 52 of them received a rating of three stars or higher (out of four) or are on his “Great Movies” list. Truly a great list for anybody interested in foreign and masterful cinema.

A Note On Ratings

Films are rated on a 5-star scale, with 1 star being the lowest possible rating. In short, 4/5-star films are fully recommended, 3-star films are just okay, and 1/2-star films range from mildly flawed/unenjoyable to completely horrible.